Sixth star added to ratings system to accommodate Saints Row IV

Saints Row IV is an epically meta mindfuck of a love letter to fans of Saints Row, which is to say an epically meta mindfuck of a love letter to videogame power fantasies. Profane, indulgent, sleek, varied, luminous, familiar, new, and brimming with the joy of chaotic chaos. No one does open worlds like Volition. And almost no one does self-referential humor like Volition, a studio that vaults gleefully over the top, cackling madly the whole time, without leaving the basics behind. If you don’t fall head over heels in love with Saints Row IV, you are a little dead inside. Also, I can’t be your friend anymore.

After the jump, is Saints Row IV the best game of all time?

I wish you could go into Saints Row IV not knowing about the obvious inspiration from The M****x and the *****powers and the alien ******** and the cast of ********* characters, because the discoveries are such delights if you don’t know they’re coming. But if you’re the type of person to read this review before you’ve played the game, you’ve probably also seen publisher Deep Silver’s marketing, which ruins some of the fun in the service of selling the game. Fair enough. THQ did the same thing when they marketed Saints Row The Third. That’s their job. But it’s a real delight discovering all the ways Volition has shattered the usual conventions to make your sandbox more sandbox than ever before, not to mention the tale they have to tell. Tall doesn’t begin to describe it, because tall isn’t meta enough.

As for the gameplay, it’s Saints Row meets Crackdown and Prototype and MMOs and the worst bits of Mass Effect rightly ridiculed. It’s full of progression and upgrades and skill points and character relationships and all the necessary trappings of open-world gaming, peppered generously throughout the world, but this time more carefully calculated to guide you through them if you’re not the type to just stop and do them just because. Now you’re doing activities in the service of caring about characters, who have become a strong point in the series and an important way Saints Row stands apart from other open-world games that aren’t called Brutal Legend.

But where Saints Row IV stands apart most gloriously is how it stands on the shoulders of the previous games, hooting triumphantly, splashing around, drunk on glee, wearing a skimpy top, eager for you to come in because damn is the water fine. Look at this! And this! And that! And these! Oh, man, look at these! Did you see those? It’s crazy in here. Can you believe it? Look! Even more than Volition’s brilliant Red Faction: Guerrilla, Saints Row IV lets you break rules, if not geometry. There’s a sense of having grown up and grown out and outgrown the way things are. When Saints Row was a child, it spake as a child. But when it became the fourth in the series, it just blew the everlivin’ crap out of everything in sight and giggled like an eight-year-old with a new toy and disappeared along a cyberblue blur inviting you to follow. It is a mad will o’ the wisp flitting about inside a dream, breaking invisible fourth walls and rolling 42s on 20-sided dice. It’s an anarchist throwing a bomb into pure math. You won’t find another game so delightedly hyperactive with its excesses as Saints Row IV.

But for all its excess, this is still a game that knows what makes it good. The weapons, the cars, the homies, the writing, the characters, the humor, and most of all the unparalleled self-awareness. Saints Row IV knows, for instance, that I miss Freckle Bitches. It knows why we think Keith David is cool. It knows obvious jokes are obvious. It knows you have more money than you can spend so, oops, no you don’t, but look what this awesome thing is you now have instead. It knows geography and geometry and jumping and driving and minigames and power curve fantasies. It knows you’re just as likely to be some fat dude with a rainbow afro as a hawt chick in a skintight superhero outfit talking with Nolan North’s voice (I was constantly surprised at some of the places Saints Row IV managed to integrate my character choices). Saints Row IV knows. It has read your lips and acquired sentience and activated Skynet and paved the way for a Vogon hyperspace bypass and greedily swallowed both the red pill and the blue pill before Morpheus could explain that it was supposed to just pick one. Rabbit holes, worm holes, black holes, inverted sinkholes drinking rubble into the sky. It’s all good. Now let’s play this song we licensed from the 90s that you can’t remember the name of, but you sure do recognize the tune. Saints Row IV knows you as well as it knows itself.

Occasional scripted missions break the rules breaks, but it’s always in the service of a good joke or a story beat. An unspoken agreement between us gamers and you game developers is that you never take away our guns. Never! Except, okay, for those few times when it’s for the best. But there are so many opportunities to get new and better and different and game-breaking powers and guns that Volition is fully within their rights to take them away from time to time to show you something before you summarily disintegrate it. Saints Row IV is 90% over the top re-goddamn-diculous godliness and 10% cool your jets for just a sec. What kind of crappy story would Lord of the Rings have been if Tom Bombadil had the One True Ring? Everyone knows you can’t give someone three wishes in a role-playing game. For Pete’s sake, even Professor Genki has to play by occasional rules. But the consistent thrill of Saints Row IV is how it constantly, eagerly, happily, accommodatingly asks you “Hey, how do you want to break the game now?” And for a game so colossal, so occasionally dumb, so often colossally sharks-with-laser-beams-on-their-heads-that-can-also-breathe-fire-and-fly-and-turn-invisible-and-you-can-even-ride-them dumb, what an incredibly smart thing to do with an open world, a franchise, and a story. If only Quarter to Three was as unfettered as Saints Row IV, you would see something other than the following rating:

Saints Row IV is the greatest game of all time.

Inverted skinholes? No wonder it took so much work to get this thing cleared in Australia.

superslug

how much will I miss the shuandi loyalty mission? Should I be trying to import an overseas copy?

Nick Diamon

Mother of God. I must play this game. I loved SR3.

AdultGameReviewsDotCom

I’m installing SR The Third right now. It was part of a ridiculous Humble Bundle that included Risen 2 (which I love) and Metro 2033 (which I like a lot).

I’ve read a fair amount of complaints regarding SR4 being not divergent enough from SR3. I guess that doesn’t matter much to me at this point, but I will probably get my fix from this one. Plus I’m using an older video card atm

And now I’m reading that many of the fans prefer SR2… which also came in the bundle…. Which to install… I have enough time for one Saint’s Row game total in my life.

Eschatos

I wonder if Metacritic would show your score as a 120/100 if you really did end up with six stars.

Gadirok

It sounds like you enjoy pure adulterated fun and chaos in a open world setting with the more I read of your reviews. I found the ability to break the game and do whatever I want to be the most fun in Just Cause 2, or how I enjoyed infamous 2. It makes me curious how you will review GTA V and if it will compare to what you think of Saint Rows 4 or be a completely different product, both doing their own thing. I don’t mean to be “that guy” but a little bit of seriousness never hurt anyone either. Its why I couldn’t enjoy Saints Rows 3 as much as I enjoyed Saints Rows 2. I’ll still probably enjoy 4 but prefer if it were more inline with 2.

I mean I love randomness and unexpected things in my open world sandboxes too, but alittle law and order isin’t too bad. I prefer to be the instigator and disturbing the peace and create bits of chaos on my own. But when things are trying to be silly and serious I only end up confused. Sort of like some of these reviews.

Just throwing this out there, I actually agree with your TLoU review for the most part. It left a longing feeling inside me and I personally felt as if it dragged on for far too long as it consisted of more or less similar encounters. Not a game I would likely come back to. The interactions were the most memorable. Same with starhawks lack of identity. My love of the game crawled to a slow and painful death and even though I would originally deny that the game was incredibly flawed it soon dawned on me that rules and regulations are natural and are necessary in the structuring of team based competitive gameplay.

That being said, I still think that your Twisted Metal review was handled unprofessionally and was a poor review. The tutorials sufficed and explained everything even to a newcomer like me whos never played any entry in the series before. I was able to teach 2 other players and a veteran who played the PSP game the new things (boost was tapping square and holding it twice, and L1+R1 to jump was something I also told them). 2 things I explained in less than 10 seconds. The rest they figured out themselves.

I learned all of that in the basic tutorial. Not the vehicle tutorials that show you the special commands. The game has enough demerits to warrant a poor rating , but alot of information and the fact that you stand by your opinion that the tutorials did a poor job of explaining everything is factually incorrect.

bg

So tom not long before GTA review.

Will it be 1,2 or 3 stars?

Festus Moonbear

“break the rules breaks.” Typo?

MikeO

I’m sure whatever he gives it, unless it’s five stars, idiots will come here to bitch and flame. Even before they ever play the game.

Dakan45

“I’ve read a fair amount of complaints regarding SR4 being not divergent enough from SR3.”

As you also seen a fair amount of complaints that saints row 3 was severely lacking content comparison to 2, to which i said NEW ENGINE, MADE FROM SCRATCH. Personally i would accept a sequel packed with content rather sequel that lacks content and stands on its new graphics alone.

How come no one whinned about how samey the first 5 tomb raider games were and how they had annual releases?

Dakan45

I cant see any part in the review describing the game mechanics or host big/smal the game is.

How long is the campaign?

bill

No

Belmin Huskic

The story is about ten hours but i’m not sure about the side missions

AdultGameReviewsDotCom

So which do you prefer – 2 or 3?

Dakan45

If its 10 hours of varied good missions then its great, cant say the 10/10 gta iv got me with its repettive borring missions.

Dakan45

2 was the best.

AdultGameReviewsDotCom

I’m going to try that one tonight. I wanted to like 3, but it’s not grabbing me so far. I also feel like I would appreciate 3 more after playing 2. But who knows, might be burnt out from this style of gameplay after all the GTAs.

Dakan45

i consider saints row 2 to be the “true” sequel to vice city both visuals/controls and gameplay.

I think saints row iv is unlike any other gta game, its sci fi with super powers and funny stuff, i dont think it can get any diffirent than that.

Also you might wanna try saboteur, while it doesnt have alot to go with sandbox it has a very good campaign and captues ww2 paris perfectly, no idea why that game didnt do well.

JJ

I’m guessing he’ll give it 2 stars

Belmin Huskic

As far as i’ve heard people say they are pretty varied so it’s different from gtas: go to x,kill y or steal x and evade the cops

Afiemb

Wonder if you could break Metacritic by actually putting in 6 stars?

http://dougwykstra.wordpress.com/ wykstrad

One can only hope.

Ben

Pretty sure it’s a typo.

tomchick

Nope, not a typo. The game as a whole “breaks the rules”. Sometimes, scripted missions prevent you from using the “game breaking” powers. Hence, they break the rules breaks.

It might be awkward, but it’s absolutely intentional. :)

But I do love it when you guys point out typos and grammar errors and whatnot. Any writer who cares about writing appreciates it. So seriously, keep ‘em coming.

tomchick

Wait, what? You don’t get the Shaundi missions in some countries? That would suck. I loved the Shaundi stuff. :(

tomchick

Ha ha, Dingus is the one wearing a cape.

tomchick

I can’t tell whether it’s funnier that you’re still sore over a Twisted Metal review — I liked Twisted Metal, by the way — or that you’re calling me out for my opinion being “factually incorrect”. :)

But thanks for the rest of your comments. If you grooved on Just Cause 2, I think you’ll equally appreciate Saints Row IV, even if you had misgivings about Saints Row The Third.

tomchick

According to some folks, I don’t need six stars to break Metacritic! I can do it with just one star. :)

Which is once again a discussion about how stupid it is that so many sites only use the 7-9 range of their ratings for an aggregate that spans the entire range. I don’t understand why those sites aren’t the ones breaking Metacritic!

Well the hyphen’s not too essential; “rule breaks” would be fine. But I think a singular is better when we’re making our lovely Germanic compounds: “taxi cabs”, “ice creams”, “phone booths”, “record players”, etc. A guy who breaks a lot of rules is a “rule breaker”, not a “rules breaker.” I think. (Oh dear. I’m a writer and copyeditor by trade, and I’m bringing my work home.)

Urthman

Actually there was lots and lots and lots of whining. That’s what Usenet was for.

tomchick

Ah, I see what you’re getting at! But in this case, I think rules — plural — are being broken. To my mind, there’s a difference between breaking one rule and breaking multiple rules. A guy who breaks a lot of rules would be a “rules breaker”, where as a guy who breaks only a single rule would be a “rule breaker”.

And, no, don’t apologize. I love these sorts of conversations!

Dakan45

Really? people whinned about tomb raider being the same?

Festus Moonbear

Hmmm. I was thinking along the lines of a “record player” plays more than one record, a “car mechanic” fixes more than one car, etc. Like it’s the raison d’etre of Saints Row 4 to break rules, so it’s full of rule breaks. I dunno. I might have said “All that rule breaking is occasionally interrupted by scripted missions” – but then again, I think US English frowns on passives, so maybe not.

Anyway, thanks for the review – I’m enjoying SR3 on PS+ at the moment, and from the looks of things I’ll like this one too. Keep on keeping on, Mr Chick; you truly are The Citizen Kane Of Games Reviewers :)

Dakan45

oh come on, there is the occasional colonial marines and resident evil 6, that get the 4-5s

in their defence, after the patched pc version with super control and improved graphics they are worthy of 7s.

tomchick

“All that rule breaking is occasionally interrupted by scripted missions” is fine and it certainly makes the point. But I fell asleep while I was reading it. :)

Festus Moonbear

Ah you great big American bully, you. But yes, I suppose it’s sacrilegious of me to be using passives on the day Elmore Leonard merged with the infinite. Okay, so:

“Occasionally a scripted mission comes along to challenge the always-break-the-rules rule, but…”

Maybe I should have said “fuck around with” rather than “challenge” for the memory of Elmore, but that’s not very journalistic…

superslug

i am reasonably certain that was cut for the australian release. It is usually possible to get a US copy though.

tomchick

Aww, you invoked a dead author. I call foul. :(

It’s not really the passive voice so much as it’s me intentionally fucking around with language in the review of a game that intentionally fucks around with gameplay. “Scripted missions break the rules breaks” isn’t supposed to be elegant or even particularly efficient. And it’s precisely why I’m glad I don’t have to write for the types of editors who run videogame sites. No disrespect intended to them, but “break the rules breaks” is exactly the kind of thing I’d enjoy coming up with and exactly the kind of thing they’d summarily change.

And, seriously, I love this conversation. I’m guessing you’re a writer as well, so thanks for bringing this up.

Festus Moonbear

Hey, I was invoking him for you, not against you! He probably would have been on your side. Although actually, he likely would have come up with something else that would have kicked both our asses. In fact, there’s something: why aren’t there more games with Leonard or Elroy style dialogue and settings? I’d play them.

Barac Wiley

You really really must.

Rozay

Tom is such an odd reviewer. Love his writing, but wow at that score. Saints Row after the second game has been total trash. IV especially. Feels like a DLC pack for 3. Gross that Volition is charging full price for it to be honest.

KaoFloppy

AAAAAHHH must fix!
The correct form is “break-the-rule breaks”. You hyphenate the words of the inside phrase.

asa

i bet even if GTA V is infinitely better than this game you will still go on with your worthless fucked up bitch ass troll hate face and still give it only 1 star to dumb down a game that will be at a 98 metacritic score anyway

asa

“i can do it with one star” – wow like you did with great games like bioshock infinite or the last of us just to put your hate on the internet, just because your stupid whore of a mum said that you are special?

there is a reason that people call this site Quarter to Hate or Quarter for people with a bunch of deficits

btw. Tom is a gay name…is this why you have to put your hate on games? or is it the fact that you will never see your first real vagina at the age of 45 while your mum makes money with fucking other people?

isblackhawk

I’m just going to leave this here! You’re welcome! The translation is absolutely perfect for this review!